The Women’s University Club of Middletown recognized recipients of its 2011 scholarships at a dinner held on June 8, 2011.

Navjot Kaur is the 2011 recipient of the Women’s University Club of Middletown Scholarship Award in memory of Dorothy Gray Blizzard.  Lynda Mitchell, Club president, presented the award.  The Women’s University Club of Middletown was founded in 1920 by a group of thirteen women for the purpose of uniting college women for useful work and to encourage interest in educational activities.  Over the years, the Club has expanded its purpose to include the awarding of scholarships and awards to outstanding females graduating from Middletown High School who plan to attend four-year institutions of higher learning.  Membership in the organization stands at over 200.

In addition, the E. Bash Soderlund and Barbara Soderlund (Women’s University Club) Mentoring Fund, established by Women’s University Club member and former treasurer Sandra Soons (Vassar College, Class of 1959 and co-owner of the very successful Soons Orchard in New Hampton) was awarded to Lori Boyd from Wurtsboro.  The Soderlund endowment fund provides an annual mentoring grant to a woman 21 years of age or older returning to the classroom at SUNY Orange.  Soons established the endowment fund in honor of her late mother, E. Bash Soderlund, and stepmother, Barbara Soderlund, both of whom attended the University of Nebraska.  According to Soons, “Mother was a homemaker who attended college at age 16 and graduated at age 20.  My step-mother was widowed at a young age and returned to college to become a kindergarten teacher.”

The Community Foundation of Orange & Sullivan administers The Women’s University Club Endowment Fund and the E. Bash Soderlund and Barbara Soderlund (Women’s University Club) Mentoring Fund are facilitated through the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan, a 501(c)(3) public charity that was created to help individuals, organizations, and businesses establish charitable endowments within their community.